Standing against the southern Milky Way are large statues, locally called Moais, remained from 13th to 15th century on the Easter Island, Pacific Ocean. The set of statues pictured here is Ahu Tongariki in the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) National Park, a well deserved World Heritage Site. The patchy clouds on the right are our neighboring satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Easter island is one of the most remote inhabited island on the Earth, hosting some 887 Moai stone statues carved from the Rano Raraku volcanic crater stone quarry. The largest statue weights 86 tons. Noted by the photographer: "The silent of the night was broken when me and my fellow photographer suddenly noticed flying bones coming towards us! An aboriginal native dashed out of the darkness at us shouting and throwing bad omen bones at us. We ran for our lives!
Click on the constellation icon above the image to see the picture of the two of us running with our headlamps on in the darkness!" Wally Pacholka, Astropics.com